We fell in love with his gritty, one-of-a-kind down home voice as one quarter of 90s platinum selling hit makers, the Teddy Riley-lead Blackstreet. Launching into a massively successful solo career drenched in music for the soul, Dave Hollister‘s name holds weight. The Gold-selling singer cross-bred inspirational material with edgy tracks, encompassing street love and romance into some of R&B’s finest tracks.
Hollister is refueling his talent as a go-to vocalist for smooth soul and true R&B; reminiscent of days of old where love was celebrated, women adorned and contemporary odes to romance reigned supreme. Preparing to release new album, the Chicago native continues to pump out passionate tracks, laced with lessons learned and odes to women, equipping the fellas with instructions on how to treat their lady.
Now eight albums deep, Hollister seeks to remind listeners of his signature sound, from his wildly successful 2000 album Chicago ’85 The Movie to his latest album, The MANuscript, due for a September release.
The Source caught up with the “One Woman Man” singer as he talked his new album, previous label troubles and the solution to gang violence plaguing his home city of Chicago.
What can fans expect from your new album The MANuscript?
Don’t know if people know [about my last album]—but not many do, cause it only did like 20,000 copies but whatever, I’m not going to go on no rant *laughs* but EOne sucks. Whew! Ok, I’m trying to get it together! Because it was a dope album that they messed over, but we won’t cry over spilled milk. [With] this album, MANUscript, people [will] equate it to Chicago ’85.
Walter Millsap, my partner and manager, said if we’re going to do this [new album] then we need to get back to the essence of Dave Hollister, because his lane is open. That’s what we tried to do: go back to the essence of who I am. This album is pretty much a Bible for women to give their men.
There’s a few songs on there for the guys too, especially with the baby mamas, who’s still giving them drama about child support. My song “Receipts” is about a man who’s been a father but the woman wants to get over using the system.
There’s something for men and women on this album, something I’ve never really had before. Usually it’s either one or the other.
Why did you choose “Definition of a Woman” as the lead single?
“Definition of a Woman” is about showing appreciation, praising a woman, especially if you have a good one, showing you how to treat a woman. And the radio people who we let hear the record all agreed like, “Yep, that’s the one!” We struggled between four songs, we struggled hard and even when we had to narrow it down, it was three. But this one made a lot of sense.
Now you sing a lot about love, what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done for love?
I’ve done so much, I just can’t pick one; especially when I was younger! I’m turning 48 this year and when you’re younger, you do stupid things for love, I can’t just pick one thing. I know one time I ran down the middle of the Dan Ryan trying to catch a car that the woman I was dating was in when I was with another woman, knowing I wasn’t going to catch her on a freeway!
On my record called “Barbershop” I’m talking about the Dan Ryan, “in the whip / flying up the Dan Ryan.”
You’ve been in the game for two decades, as you look back, do you have any regrets?
Oh my gosh, yes, we would be here for hours if we talked about what I should’ve did! *laughs*
I would say I wouldn’t have put out “Baby Mama Drama” as a single and a video. It was wasted money, wasted time. And that was Eric Sermon‘s and I decision to do against the label’s wishes. Because they told us if we let them put out “My Favorite Girl” then they would give us the next single, and they argued with us and it was probably the worst move we could’ve made. They went and dumped “Can’t Stay” on the back of it because we had so much momentum with “My Favorite Girl,” we sold 700,000 singles. Then to turn around and release “Baby Mama Drama”- I thought, ‘No I need to do this for my cats, I need to do this!” and they said, ‘No, wrong move,” and they were right. It kind of went south, but “Can’t Stay” revived everything. So therefore a lot of times I will not fight the executives who do radio.
To be honest I didn’t even like “One Woman Man”! It was the last song on the record and I wasn’t even going to record it, but my ex-wife at the time asked me to record it and she never ever commented on my music, so I knew at that point it had to be something. I recorded it, but I still didn’t want it to be a single. But you see what happened, it was one of my biggest songs to date. So I don’t like picking singles no more, I just like to pick my favorite.
Being from Chicago, what do you say about the gang violence?
I can’t even begin to say. Born west, growing up south, of course a lot of us got into gangs and there were times we couldn’t escape it but there was a code back then; no women, no children. It has to stop! I’m going to try to reach out to my boy Common and couple other cats I know. My brother-in-law Jess Wright and I did a duet together for his album and it’s so crazy because we’re talking about Chicago. His verse is about growing up on the south side, mine is about growing up on the west side. It’s basically explaining what Chicago was and what it is now, called “A Little Hope.” We need some kind of hope. I know it’ll be big in Chicago but it needs to filter out.
The MANuscript is set for a September 9, 2016 release.